Table of contents for Volume 39 No 11 - November 2025 in Backtrack

Back in the 1970s Ryecroft Junction, Walsall, was a busy freight ‘hotspot’ producing a wonderful variety of trains, traffic and traction throughout the day and night. The late, and respected, photographer Michael Mensing made a number of visits to this location during this decade and a few years previous to his sad passing in December 2014, at the age of 80, I managed to acquire from him print copies of a good selection of his images taken in my native home region of the Black Country, in the West Midlands One such visit to Ryecroft took place on the bitterly cold, but sunny, morning of Friday 20th January 1978 when Michael took up his position, just north of the junction, on the Mill Lane road bridge spanning both the Lichfield…

Dugald Drummond died in 1912 at the age of 72 while still employed by the London & South Western Railway, following the amputation of his legs resulting from a scalding accident. There are two versions to account for the scalding: one attributes it to an escape of steam on the footplate; but the commonly accepted version, supported by Hamilton Ellis, has it that Drummond became chilled and demanded that his housekeeper prepare a hot mustard bath. Unable to feel the benefit of this he insisted on hotter and hotter water, the temperature of which was increased to the point that his legs were severely scalded, leading to gangrene. Amputation became necessary, which was carried out without anaesthetic (Drummond refused it) and the shock of this killed him. Thus ended the…

For the writer’s 90th birthday celebrations, his family had taken him for a holiday to a hotel, just north of York, which consisted mainly of wonderfully transformed MkI coaches. Here, if one was inclined to do so, one could lie in bed and watch the traffic on the East Coast Main Line, just over the fence. Where did I want to go to celebrate my 91st? There was a number of criteria that needed to be fulfilled. I suggested the Brecon Beacons, so again the family started looking for somewhere we could stay. A bungalow to the south of Brecon ticked all the right boxes and was duly booked. This established, out came the maps, with the hope I might find something of railway interest, though I knew that railways…

This article will concentrate on the twilight years of the unrebuilt LMS ‘Patriot’ 4-6-0s in the period between June 1957 and October 1961 from the perspective of performance. Despite rebuilding occurring on the class to an extent that eighteen out of 52 members of the class were so treated, roughly two-thirds of the class went to the breaker’s yard in their original parallel boiler state. Coverage of their performance in the railway press was largely a short-lived episode in the era between 1930-1939. This largely featured running on the Midland Main Line and the neighbouring Western Division of the West Coast Main Line. The post-war era was rather different after the introduction of 191 Stanier ‘Jubilees’ during the 1934-1937 era (pre-war) when they largely replaced these engines on the fastest…

Individual British Railways Brush Type 4 locomotives were subjected to a myriad of experiments over the years. One little-known set of tests are those carried out on No.D1509 between 1964 and 1966. These involved fitting No.D1509 with amber route indicators and flat beam headlamps for use in fog. The acquisition of two pictures of No.D1509 fitted with the equipment prompted further research to uncover the full story of the trials and their outcome. These tests originated at the Motive Power Committee meetings of February and March 1962 on the problem of headcode glare in fog. There had been a three-way collision at Connington on 15th December 1961, involving amongst others ‘Deltic’ No.D9012 Crepello. A contributing factor was glare from the headcode on what was a foggy night. Col. McMullen, who…

Was there really an Emett Railway and where could it be found? Well, it did exist in south London and though it often referred to as the Emett Railway it was not actually built by anyone with that name. It was, however, inspired by the cartoons of Rowland Emett who had been a draughtsman working for the Air Ministry. In his spare time he used to draw cartoons with outlandish-looking mechanical devices which may owe something of their origin, or at least the inspiration for them, to W. Heath Robinson who was also known for unusual mechanical creations. From 1939 to 1950 many Emett cartoons appeared in that sadly missed magazine Punch and many of these incorporated a railway theme and these evolved to become a unique blend of extraordinary…

The TRAMM consists of two coupled rail vehicles, capable of being driven from either end: ie a crew cab at one end and a drive and second man at the other. It was designed to carry four 60-foot rails and sleepers. It is equipped with a hydraulic crane with lifting beam and a grab for digging. Under the main crew cab there is a system for handling the rails at ground level. In late 1985 it was decided to move a TRAMM to Scotland and a plan was drawn up. I asked management whether it would it be better to take a full two days to get the TRAMM to Scotland, as its top speed was 50mph on level track and, to be honest, the people running trains would not…

The year was 1922. A young man and a young woman – possibly a honeymoon couple - were standing on the platform at Kilmarnock station waiting for their train to arrive. Now, it was the height of the summer. It was very, very, very hot indeed. The sun was beating down relentlessly from a cloudless sky. The brilliant sunshine was glinting on and reflecting from the rails. The woman turned to her husband and said “I don’t know whose job it is to polish the rails, but they make a very good job of it.” After the city of Glasgow where the Glasgow & South Western Railway was headquartered and where it had its major terminal station, St. Enoch, the town of Kilmarnock along with its immediate environs was clearly…

Barry Taylor’s article ‘A Woodhouse Station Family’ in Vol.39 No.6 of Backtrack resonated with this writer for two reasons: firstly, because my family is from the local area and I used to pass through Woodhouse regularly when travelling from Worksop to Sheffield and know the area well; secondly, because I’d previously done detailed research into the history of another employee of the Manchester, Sheffield & Lincolnshire Railway (MSLR), William Mozley. Mozley began his lengthy and extremely successful railway career in 1873 at Beighton station in north east Derbyshire which is now, like Woodhouse, part of the wider Sheffield conurbation. Beighton was only around two miles from Woodhouse on a branch line from there to the North Midland line at Beighton Junction. Mozley would go on to spend over 50 years…

FROM THE PENDRAGON ARCHIVES…

After the considerable flurry of Bolton Wakes Week special trains to generally far-flung destinations on the opening Friday night and Saturday, day excursions would run on certain days for those not going anywhere to stay. On Wednesday of the first week, 29th June 1966, Bolton 9K driver Brian Shaw, working his rest day, and fireman Harold Earp, signed on at 08.00 to work 1T96 Bolton–Blackpool South. They were given not one of the shed’s better ‘Black 5s’, but what became one of the lesser distinguished Standard 5s, No.73048, from the batch of twelve which was still making its way in dribs and drabs to Bolton from various ex-Great Western depots as far south as Banbury. It was from this mpd that No.73048 heralded, having seen a few weeks’ service at…